Monday, December 24, 2007

Tiramisu with Japanese Matcha Green Tea

Updated pictures and recipe from the archives on January 24, 2015:

While hanging out with one of my former students at Love to Go - San Gabriel, she mentioned wanting to learn how to cook. We were eying the tiramisu in the display case, when I said that it was easy to do and that I had been meaning to re-make my Tiramisu with Japanese Matcha Green Tea for the blog.

Backtrack a little before our conversation when I was chatting online with my friend HH, who asked for ideas for a signature dessert for his friend's new coffee shop. I went through a slew of the latest trends in tea shops in the San Gabriel Valley and Koreatown, then scrolled through my dessert recipes and saw my sad old photo of my green tea tiramisu. I made a mental note to re-make it soon when my student's request and my oldest uncle's death anniversary seemed like the perfect opportunity to do so.

A little bit of previous commentary below, but otherwise, it's all new step-by-step pictures and a major revamp of the recipe.

After discovering how quick and easy it was to make Tiramisu, I decided to try making it with Japanese matcha green tea. The version I had at Italian Tomato - Costa Mesa was actually not that spectacular - not much green tea flavor and rather dry. And in looking at the photo again, I think my green tea tiramisu looks tastier! :) Lil' sis kept urging me not to do it because she remembered not being impressed with their green tea tiramisu either. But I promised her I'd make a normal one just in case. As it turned out, we ate all of the cake and regular tiramisu and there was just a small portion of this left. Two of my cousins had dibs on the leftovers.

I like my green tea bold in flavor, no subtlety here. The green tea is very bitter so I was worried about how it'd turn out, but the sweetness of the whipped cream evened it out. If you want to drink the leftover green tea, unless you have a sweetened version, I'd advise adding lots and lots of sugar.

Spoon about a third of the whipped cream into a bowl of the mascarpone mixture.

Taste and add up to another third of the whipped cream. You might not need all of the whipped cream. I used all of it and that was a bit much; the whipped cream overpowered the taste of the mascarpone. Taste and stop at 2/3rds of the whipped cream mascarpone mixture if it's to your liking or use all of it if you wish.

Now you're ready to start assembling.

Using chopsticks, or your fingers, dip the ladyfingers into the green tea. I like my tiramisu very moist so I make sure all sides of the ladyfingers are covered.

Lay the pieces until the bottom of the pan is covered. Dust green tea powder on top.

Add a layer of the mascarpone whipped cream mixture.

Add another layer of the tea-soaked lady fingers.

Dust with matcha green tea powder on top.

Then another layer of the mascarpone whipped cream and a final dusting of green tea powder.

Here, you can see the layers of lady fingers and mascarpone whipped cream.

Cover with plastic wrap and chill in fridge at least an hour so the tiramisu can set before serving. I ended up leaving mine in the fridge for several days since I was making it for my oldest uncle's death anniversary.

Plate and serve. I saved a bit for photographing later for the blog.

And brought the bulk of the tiramisu for the luncheon. Where, to paraphrase, cousin Lee declared that it had the delicacy of green tea while retaining the essence of tiramisu, or something like that. My cousin's sister-in-law's husband scarfed down the piece his wife gave him in two bites and scraped the plate. With the tiramisu lost amongst all the other delicious offerings at the death anniversary luncheon, those were pretty high compliments indeed.

Now, let's look at that old photo that necessitated updating. That version was made with poundcake, but nonetheless, you have to admit the tiramisu with Japanese match green tea looks much better now!

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